"The area of our territory, which is about three millions of square miles, will soon be treated of by Mr. Poor, the Chairman of the section on Topography. Without proposing to trench upon the duties of that section, or to do more than refer to the prominent features of our physical geography, I may remark, that the calculations of the Topographical Bureau at Washington show the existence of an interior valley drained by the waters of the Mississippi and its tributaries, nearly as large as the Atlantic and Pacific slopes together, and one-third larger than the whole domain of the Republic on the adoption of the Constitution.

"Over two-fifths of the national territory is drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries, and more than one-half is embraced in what may be called its middle region. One-fourth of its total area belongs to the Pacific, one-sixth to the Atlantic proper, one twenty-sixth to the Lakes, one-ninth to the Gulf, or one-third to the Atlantic, including the Lakes and Gulf.

"Of the entire area of the United States only about one-thirteenth part is improved; about one-eighth more is occupied but not improved. The entire number of acres occupied is some three hundred millions, (293,560,614), or nearly one-sixth part of the national domain.

"Between the United States and France, - although the lands in both are generally held in fee simple, or nearly so, - a difference of similar importance is found in the average size of the farms.

"Here the average is from 150 to 200 acres; there the average, although not so small as has been frequently represented, is probably but six or eight acres among four millions of the smaller proprietors, or about twelve acres to each farm throughout the entire empire; and these are frequently encumbered by ancestral mortgages.

"This table shows us that in 1850 the four largest staples of our country, ranking them according to their annual value, were -

Indian Corn, ... - $296,000,000

Hay,..... 138,000,000

Wheat,..... 90,000,000

Cotton,..... 78,000,000"

Mr. Jay examines the question whether Indian Corn is strictly a plant of the New World, and arrives at the conclusion that it is so, and adds:

"Indian Corn is preeminently the great staple of the country, surpassing all others in the area of its cultivation, and in the amount and value of the crop, yielding, in 1850, within a fraction of three hundred millions of dollars, being all but equal to the united values of the three next staples in their order, - wheat, hay and cotton; and as Indian Corn is not only the most important, but the most universal crop, extending from the northern to the southern limit of the United States, its cultivation would seem to afford a better test than that offered by any other, of the progress of American tillage.

"In the production of Indian Corn no State has retrograded. The crop in 1840; was nearly four hundred millions of bushels; in 1850 it was within a fraction of six hundred millions, being a gain of 56 per cent., while the increase of the population, during the same time, was only 35 per cent. The estimated crop for 1855, according to the Secretary of the Treasury, was between seven and eight hundred millions, or nearly double the crop for 1840 and the crop for 1856 was estimated at fully eight hundred millions of bushels.

"Chicago, which, twenty years ago, imported flour and meal for her own consumption, has established brands of flour which are now recognized throughout Europe; and she is shown by recent statistics to be the largest primary grain depot in the world, rivaling Odessa and Galatz, Dantzig and St. Petersburg, while she leads all other ports of the world also in the quantity and quality of her exports.

"The population of Chicago, which, in 1850, was 29,000, in 1856 had increased to 104,000.

"The census of New York for 1855 shows that her wheat crop, once so famous, is actually decreasing, owing, as is supposed, in part to the ravages of insects, and in part to diseases of the plant, assisted, perhaps, by a gradual deterioration of the soil.

"In no country can a bread crop be raised with less labor than Indian Corn generally throughout the United States, and it has been estimated that the same amount of toil of a man and horse which will raise a bushel of wheat in England, will raise ten bushels of corn on favorable soil in this country.

"There is about one horse to every five persons in the United States. The 500,000 asses and mules returned are almost entirely confined to the Southern States, where the climate is regarded as better adapted to this animal than the horse.

"The total value of live stock in the United States, in 1855, was about five hundred and fifty millions, and the value of animals slaughtered about one hundred and twelve millions.

"The grain, root, and other crops, from 1840 to 1850:

"Rye had decreased from eighteen millions of bushels to fourteen millions.

"Oats had increased from one hundred and twenty-three millions to one hundred and forty-six millions.

"Potatoes (Irish and sweet) had decreased from one hundred and eight millions of bushels to one hundred and four millions.

"Cotton had increased from eight hundred millions of pounds in 1840, to nine hundred and eighty millions in 1850, and to one billion and eighty-eight millions in 1855.

"Rice from eighty millions of pounds to two hundred and fifteen millions; while "Tobacco has decreased from two hundred and nineteen millions of pounds to one hundred and ninety-nine millions.

"Wool had increased from thirty millions of pounds to fifty-two millions.

"Silk Cocoons had decreased from sixty-one thousand pounds to ten thousand.

"Wine had increased from one hundred and twenty-four thousand gallons to two hundred and twenty-one thousand.

"One point that should not be lost sight of in a consideration of the advantages attendant upon agricultural operations is, the safety of the capital invested, compared with the chances of loss attendant upon commercial or manufacturing investments. The Hon. Emory Washburne, of Massachusetts, in an address before the Worcester Agricultural Society, in 1854, stated some facts bearing upon the question, which a statistical inquiry, if one could be accurately made, into the successes or reverses of the various pursuits in which our countrymen engage, might probably multiply to an extent that, without proof, would hardly be credited. Of the merchant's in Boston doing business at a certain wharf during forty years, only six became independent, the remainder failed or died destitute of property. Of one thousand merchants, having accounts at a principal Boston bank during the same year, only six had become independent.